Bataan
by JLaLa
Summary: At the brink of death, Peeta meets a person who will give him the courage to live.


Written for the PiP "War" prompt on Tumblr.

The Hunger Games Trilogy does not belong to me.

_Dedicated to Onofre M. who survived, Estrellita G. who made the sacrifice, and Ciriaco S. who was saved._

_Our grandparents and our inspirations._

_**Warning: Violence, Racial slurs, etc.**_

_Let the burning sun the raindrops vaporize__  
__And with my clamour behind return pure to the sky;__  
__Let a friend shed tears over my early demise;__  
__And on quiet afternoons when one prays for me on high,__  
__Pray too, oh, my Motherland, that in God may rest I._

_-Jose Rizal (Mi último adios-My Final Farewell__**)**_

Bataan

**April 1942**

_**Orion, Bataan Peninsula**_

"Keep moving. They will kill you."

I raise my eyes to look at the boy who walks alongside me. My feet weigh a ton and the dirt ground that we walk on invites me to sleep, to fall and to die.

Three long days we have walked. Three long days of no food and no water.

The screams of a man behind me ring out in the air. The screams of being bayoneted by a Japanese soldier are all too familiar now. The image of Captain Jack Marvel enters my mind. He was my sister's sweetheart. How can I tell her that my last image of him is being tied to a tree before being bayoneted repeatedly?

If I die, I will never have to tell Glimmer how he died.

"Too slow. You want to die?" the boy says to me. He has light brown hair and pale skin, but his brown eyes are the familiar shape of the Philippine people.

"Why aren't you on the other side?" I ask him. "With your people?"

"They keep moving me to this side," he replies. "Tell me that I don't look Pilipino."

"Are you a soldier?" The sun has reached the highest point in the sky.

"Yes." He looks around at the rest of the group. We are all lined up in columns of four. Filipinos to the left and Americans to the right. "My name is Rizal, like the writer."

"Peeta Mellark, or what's left of him anyway." Like the rest of the soldiers, I have lost a massive amount of weight. I am severely dehydrated and haven't taken a piss in days. Doesn't matter anyways. If you stop to take a leak, you're killed before you can get back in line.

"Peeta. Where does that name come from?" he asks curiously.

"Some sort of bread," I reply. "My dad is a baker."

We stop talking when we hear the familiar sounds of a horse approaching from behind. If you keep your head down, maybe they won't slice it off.

I let out a breath when the soldier rides past us. Rizal and I look up just in time to see someone get smacked in the head with the base of the riding soldier's bayonet.

"Do you understand Pilipino?"

I shake my head. I've only been a soldier for six months. Six months since she signed up to become a nurse. Damn Katniss Everdeen. Where the hell was she?

"I haven't been here long enough to learn," I say. "Your English is very good—for a Filipino."

"My Nanay was a pensionado." We focus on one another. If you look around, then you see the dead. Their bodies lay alongside the road. Some are pressed into the road, grounded into it by the enemy tanks. "She taught me."

"You have a girl, Peeta?" Rizal asks suddenly.

I shake my head. Someone snorts behind me.

"Don't lie to the boy," General Abernathy says from behind me. "The girl in the picture. Who the hell is that?"

I try to keep my eyes from watering. There is no water left in me to cry real tears. I would be dead before I hit the ground if I even dared to let out the dry sob that threatens to come out of my throat. The frame that held her picture was a gold and taken during the search of our belongings in the Mariveles base.

"Leave me alone," I tell them both.

Rizal only nods as we continue to walk.

"Her name was Cora," Rizal says as we look at the night sky. The stars in the countryside seem so much brighter than anything I've ever seen.

"Was?" I don't like the sound of his heavy voice.

"Killed her right after they—" He stops and I can hear the tears in his voice. I let him recover for a moment before he continues. "She was protecting her sister. They killed her, too."

They were just like Katniss and her younger sister, Primrose. "Motherfuckers."

We lay in silence. "Her name is Katniss."

"Kat-Niss," he sounds out.

"She lives next door to me back home. I signed up when she told me that she was going overseas as a nurse," I tell him. "I don't even remember walking to the recruitment center. I knew I had to be fighting. I couldn't stay. Too many memories of her."

"How come you did not marry her?"

I sigh and allow a tear to fall onto the soft dirt. I wonder if tomorrow I will be buried in it.

"Because she doesn't know that I'm in love with her. And she might never know."

* * *

_**Day Four-Layac, Bataan Peninsula**_

"_This love of mine goes on and on, __  
__Tho' life is empty since you have gone. __  
__You're always on my mind, tho' out of sight __  
__It's lonesome thru the day, __  
__But oh! the night…"_

"How do you know that song?" I ask as we walk. Behind me, I hear General Abernathy groaning. He had decided to drink some water from a trench and was now paying the consequences.

"We listened to music in school," Rizal replies as we walk. Bright red stains his cheeks because of the heat. Everyone has a bare head now and I can tell my face is burnt. It hurts trying to even smile as I listen to him sing quietly.

"Katniss used to sing that song when she hung laundry outside."

I think of the skirt of her favorite red dress, fluttering in the warm air. I'd sit and watch her as I doodled pictures of her. Sometimes, she would make me help and we would end up playing a game of hide and seek along the hanging sheets.

I should have kissed her. I should have done something. My life is nothing but regrets. I feel the heaviness of my feet now more than ever.

"Peeta." I turn to Rizal. "Sing with me."

"Are you crazy? Do you want to die?"

"Quietly," he says. "Sing quietly."

"I'm not good."

"It doesn't matter. Just don't think, it's the only way to survive now."

I nod before beginning. My singing is quiet and wobbly, but just enough for Rizal to hear.

"_I'll be seeing you__  
__In all the old familiar places__  
__That this heart of mine embraces__  
__All day and through—"_

I stop suddenly unable to continue the song. I feel like I'm choking; I want to die.

"_In that small café. The park across the way_…"

I turn when I hear General Abernathy croon softly and he nods at me.

"_The children's carousel. The chestnut trees, the wishing well…"_

Rizal takes over and we sing together quietly. When we hear the familiar clip-clop of a horse, we stop singing. The horse doesn't move past us but stays behind as we hear the familiar thud of someone getting hit.

General Abernathy.

The soldier passes and we watch as he continues to hit soldiers on the side of their heads. Sometimes, he turns the bayonet and randomly stabs at someone. I struggle to not look back when we pass someone bleeding to death on the road. If he is lucky, he will die quickly. If not, the clean-up truck will take care of him.

I turn to look at General Abernathy. He keeps up the pace, but blood is running down his temple. He gives me a painful smile. Then I look over at Rizal who looks downtrodden. There are degrees of bad each day. Today is probably the worst.

"_I'll be seeing you__  
__In every lovely summer's day__  
__In everything that's light and gay__  
__I'll always think of you that way…"_

I sing for Rizal, for Abernathy, and for Katniss. I hear that they are keeping a bunch of nurses as POW's in San Tomas, which is around Manila. I wonder if she is one of them.

"Sing with me," I ask Rizal quietly.

He looks over at me. It is the first time that I actually see how young he is but how weary his eyes are. I can see that his life has not been easy. I wonder where his family is. I wonder where my brothers are and whether they are even alive. I know my eldest brother is in Europe, but all communication has ceased since we surrendered to the Japanese.

"Okay." His voice is sad and tired.

So we sing quietly and after awhile I hear the General join.

The Oriental Sun Treatment.

That's what the other soldiers call it.

"Tell me about your family," Rizal whispers as we sit on the ground.

The sun hangs above us in the field. If you don't get up after, you're shot in the head.

I can feel the heat through the thin cotton tank that I wear. My shirt was abandoned on the road somewhere around Orani. My skin has already begun to blister from other burns. Burnt skin on top of burnt skin.

"My mom is a housewife, but she runs things like a Captain. We've never been late for school or to church because of her," I say quietly. "My dad owns a bakery in the middle of town. He was going to retire soon and hand it over to Wheaton, my eldest brother."

Wheaton was the first to sign up. He left his wife, Lorraine, and the baby in her belly to go to Europe.

"Glimmer is my sister. She was engaged to her high school sweetheart," I continue. "He's gone now." I close my eyes and try to push the image of his bloody body out of my head.

"Keep talking," he urges. The Japanese walk back and forth, but they are also getting warm from the sweltering sun. Most of them are sitting under trees. Some drink from canteens they have taken from American soldiers.

"Rye is her twin brother," I say. "He was in Hawaii during Pearl Harbor—I don't know what happened to him." I sigh and close my eyes. "What about your family?"

"Dead."

"What?"

"All of them are dead," he replies. "The Japanese came into our house. Took my Papa first and hung him by his feet before chopping his head off. Mama let them kill her after she took Maricar away."

"Maricar?"

"My baby sister," he says to me. "Only a few months old. Mama smothered her." His eyes are dark as he speaks. "She saw what they did to the other babies. They throw them up in the air. Mama would rather have her die at her own hand than theirs."

"How did you survive?"

"I hid when I saw them go into the house. I climbed a tree right above it," he tells me. "I've always been good at climbing. Mama used to call me her monkey."

"UP!" One of the soldiers shouts.

I stand up and all my weight seems to drop to my feet. I hesitate and then my friend pulls me up.

"Walk," Rizal says. "Never stop walking." His eyes bore into my own, all the weight of the world in them.

So we walk.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

They sound out like cannons. Five down.

That's what happens when you stop walking.

* * *

**Day Five-Guagua**

"What will you do when you see Katniss again?"

I begin to feel sick. The heat is so bad and my stomach hurts so much. The urge to retch overtakes me. I try to swallow it back, but there is no spit in my mouth.

"_If_ I see her again," I manage to say.

"You will see her," he tells me.

"How do you know that?" I ask harshly. "We're all dropping dead by the hour!"

"Calm down, boy," General Abernathy says behind me. He has taken to following us. I think he likes Rizal. He barely tolerates me. "Don't let them Japs hear you!"

I nod, looking over at Rizal. "I don't know," I reply. I don't have the heart to tell him that I don't believe I'll make it home.

"Tell her that you came home for her," he says. "Tell her that when you closed your eyes at night, that her face was the one behind your closed eyes. And when you woke up, it was only because she called your name."

My resolve strengthens at his words. "Where did you hear that?"

"I didn't hear it from anywhere," he tells me. "I made it up. For Cora." Rizal looks to the ground. "You'll say it to her, right?" He begins to sob and his steps falter. Instinctively, I pull him by the arm._"Ikaw na ang magsabi sa kanya, ha?"_

"I don't understand," I say softly.

"He's asking you to say it to your girl," General Abernathy tells me.

"Promise?" Rizal's voice is resigned.

I pause to look at him. "I promise."

"YOU!" I look up to see the barrel of a gun in my face. The slanted eyes of a soldier look at me, disgusted. "Kneel."

I do what he says. I'm going to die. I won't fulfill my promise. I close my eyes and wait.

"_Lupang mapalad,__  
__Na mutya ng silangan;__  
__Bayang kasuyo,__  
__Ng 'sang kalikasan…"_

The soldier turns suddenly to where Rizal sings. I barely feel General Abernathy pull me up.

Rizal's eyes meet mine. I don't know if it's the heat, but I see flashes of his life. His mother's kind eyes…his father's wooden carvings….Maricar's laugh…and an image of Cora smiling at him.

BANG!

It happens so fast that I don't even register what's happening as he falls. Shrugging the General off me, I rush pass the soldier and catch my friend.

I hold him up and he looks at me, dazed. "Don't stop walking."

I nod and feel the wetness track down my cheeks. "Walk with me."

Rizal looks at me with a wisp of a smile on his lips. "I won't be able to finish_,kaibigan._"

"Kaibigan?" I repeat through my tears.

"Friend."

I struggle to pull him up, but his dying body drags me down. Suddenly, General Abernathy picks up his legs as Rizal's head lies against my chest. The other soldiers look at us. The Americans shake their head disapprovingly, but the Filipino soldiers meet my eyes. They nod their heads in respect.

"You'll die faster with the extra weight," the soldier spits at us.

He doesn't kill me like I expect him to.

"Peeta."

I look down at Rizal as we walk. We've only gone a mile and he looks completely different. His face is pale, so very pale. I know that I will not be able to forget it. Even if I live to be a hundred, his face won't be forgotten. The wound in his stomach has created a large, heavy red circle on his shirt.

"It's time to let me go," he says. "Remember your promise. Remember what I said."

I nod.

"Don't let them kill you."

"He won't die," General Abernathy says to him quietly. "Go to sleep, kid." I catch the hitch in his voice.

"Yes, Sir." His eyes close and his body stills.

It's the first time I've seen anyone die in front of me. Jack was about to die, and the other bodies I have seen were already long gone.

It is different when you see the breath actually leave someone's body. We take for granted the way our bodies function; how it is a miracle that every day your body inhales and exhales to keep you going.

"Oh God, he's gone." I begin to sob.

How the world has changed in just a single shot. How I've changed.

"Peeta! Get it together, boy," the General hisses to me as he looks around. "We only have one chance at this."

"At what?"

"Follow my instructions," he tells me. "When I tell you to run, you run."

"What?"

"Run that way." He nods towards the woods to my right. "Keep running for about a mile. Help will come."

"I don't understand," I tell him.

"I promised him," he tells me and looks at Rizal. "Do you think you can run while holding him?"

"I don't know, but I'll try."

"Give him a proper burial. He deserves it."

As we walk, General Abernathy helps me so that I'm cradling Rizal's body on my own. "You okay?"

I nod, though my pace has definitely slowed.

He lets out a low whistle and a group of men circle us. I look towards to my right to where I'm supposed to run. The soldier next to me looks at me wearily. His grey eyes are the same shade as Katniss'. He nods at me and looks at the body in my arms.

"Good luck, Soldier," he tells me in a low, raspy voice.

General Abernathy looks around, then at me. "Run."

Switching places with the grey eyed soldier, I rush towards the woods. Rizal's body suddenly seems weightless as I run.

"_Peeta."_

She's calling for me.

"_Peeta."_

I run towards her voice.

**April 1946**

_**Long Creek, South Carolina**_

"Peeta."

White sheets blow in the wind. I watch from my hiding place as I move to hide when I see her approaching me. I stand in front of another sheet and wait.

"Peeta."

Katniss lifts the sheet and finds herself face to face with me. Her eyes widen and she grins. As the wind blows around us, tendrils of her dark hair fly across her face. I bring my hand up and tuck the wayward strands behind her ear. I look into her grey eyes and feel my heart race.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asks and her hand reaches behind my neck. My arm encircles her waist and I pull her close to me.

"I will always look at you like this," I reply as my forehead rests against hers.

"Okay," she replies with a grin and raised eyebrows.

When we finish hanging the laundry, we settle on the back porch. Her head is on my lap and the undersides of her knees are touching the armrest of the bench we sit on. We look out at the white sheets blowing in the wind and the field in front of us.

"Were you scared?" she asks.

"When?"

"When you ran."

I close my eyes and find myself back in the jungle in Guagua. Rizal's body has been safely buried. One day, I will return and look for his grave. In the back of my mind, I know I won't find it. I don't think he would have wanted me to find a way to mourn him.

"Sometimes," I tell her. "I was afraid I wouldn't find my way back to you."

"What did you do when you were afraid?" she asks as she covers the hand I'm resting on her abdomen with her own.

"I'd sing. During the night, I'd count the stars or I'd pray," I say.

The morning after I escaped, I opened my eyes to find the friendly green eyes of a Captain Odair. He had been expecting General Abernathy, but took me in. I joined him and a group of Filipino guerillas to fight for three months before I was taken to Manila to recover from an infection in my left leg. To this day, I still walk with a limp.

"What did you pray for?" she asks.

"I prayed for Rizal. I prayed for General Abernathy." Once in Manila, I found out that he had been killed shortly after my escape because he refused to bury another soldier alive. "Most of all, I prayed for you and that I'd find my way back to you."

She sucks in a breath and a tear falls from the side of her eye. "Why me?"

"Because I followed your voice to safety."

"I was so worried," Katniss says, her voice low. "When Prim wrote and told me that they had lost contact with you—I just thought the worst." While I was in the jungle, she was stationed in New Caledonia. It was safer, but she often felt frustrated not being close enough to the combat areas.

She was waiting for me as I limped off the plane in New York, six months after I had been sent to Manila.

We came home together.

Katniss closes her eyes and I lean down to kiss her eyelids. "Katniss?"

"Hmm?"

"Marry me."

She opens her eyes and I know her answer. Reaching up, she cups my cheek.

"Why?"

"Because I came home for you. When I close my eyes at night, your face is behind them and the only reason I wake up every morning is because I can hear you call my name."

She looks up at me for a moment and then sits up. Turning to me, Katniss traces my lips with her own.

Pulling away, she gives her answer.

"Yes."

**FIN**


End file.
